After becoming rich overnight, I handed over the system.

Chapter 403 Sea Anomaly

Fortunately, after experiencing the taste of the water puff fruit peel in front of the president, he finally believed that Lin Mo and the others had not lied to him.

The crisis in their underground city has finally taken a turn for the better!

Zhao Tianming breathed a huge sigh of relief; he no longer had to swallow his pride and beg the other underground city leaders.

You have to understand how many smiles he gave to people during this time in order to settle the people in the underground city.

Now that the Water Pellets have appeared, he immediately perked up.

With such a powerful weapon, people from other dungeons will be the ones asking for help from now on.

Thinking of this, Zhao Tianming wished he could immediately send everyone in the base out to pick wild fruits.

Just like Lin Mo, Yu Yang is now excitedly reporting on the matter of the earth fruit.

Upon hearing Yu Yang's report, the people of New Atlantis breathed a sigh of relief.

Their agreement to cooperate with Haiyuan was essentially a last resort.

Now that we have the local fruit, there are even more possibilities.

Yu Yang had thought of that too, and he was anxious to return to Haiyuan.

Now that we have the Earth Fruit, we should naturally discuss the conversion with Ryan again.

At this moment, the blue lights of Haiyuan Medical Center always seem to shine through the seawater, carrying an unreal softness.

Cheng Hai floated in the pale golden liquid in the treatment chamber, his left arm wrapped in a translucent biomembrane, with the slow, wriggling tissue remodeling process faintly visible inside.

Medical data showed that his vital signs were stable, but his brain waves remained in a deep sleep mode.

Ella, the blue-skinned medical director, was adjusting the IV parameters when she suddenly noticed Cheng Hai's eyelids trembling slightly.

“Dr. Lane!” she called out, “The patient is waking up!”

Victor Lane strode over and checked the monitoring screen: "The sedative has finished metabolizing? Twelve hours earlier than expected."

His fingers flew across the control panel. "Prepare a nerve stabilizer; his limbic system may be overexcited."

Cheng Hai's eyes snapped open, his pupils dilating to almost fill his entire iris.

His body convulsed violently in the liquid, as if he were being electrocuted.

The monitor emitted a sharp alarm.

“He’s panicking!” Ella shouted. “His respiratory system hasn’t fully adapted to the liquid environment!”

Cheng Hai opened his mouth wide, instinctively trying to inhale, but only swallowed the treatment fluid.

His right arm pounded frantically against the bulkhead, while his left arm was bound by a biofilm and could only twitch.

Through the distorted liquid, he saw several blurry blue-skinned figures surrounding the cabin, which intensified his fear.

"Empty the treatment chamber! Quickly!" Ryan ordered. "Switch to gaseous respiratory support!"

With the sound of machinery running, the golden liquid rapidly descended.

Cheng Hai's naked body slid down to the bottom of the cabin, coughing violently and spitting out liquid from his lungs.

As the last bit of treatment fluid was drained, the transparent hatch slid open, and cold air rushed in.

Cheng Hai curled up in a ball, panting heavily, before noticing the strange thing about his left arm.

That can no longer be fully described as an arm.

From shoulder to fingertips, the entire limb is bluish-gray, with fine scales covering the skin that shimmer like pearls under the light.

Complete webbed membranes grew between the fingers, and the nails hardened and grew longer, forming a translucent claw-like structure.

The most terrifying thing was that when he unconsciously scratched the bottom of the hold, clear scratches were left on the metal surface.

"No, no, this is impossible!" Cheng Hai's voice was hoarse and inhuman. He knew he was different from before, but he could not tolerate becoming a monster.

He tried to peel off the scales on his left arm with his right hand, his fingernails digging into the flesh, and blue blood seeped out.

"Stop him!" Ryan rushed forward and, together with Ella, held Cheng Hai down. "He's harming himself!"

Cheng Hai's struggle was more intense than imagined. With a swing of his mutated left arm, he flung Ella more than three meters away.

Ryan took the opportunity to inject a sedative, but the needle could barely penetrate the scales.

“We need something more potent!” Ryan’s words were interrupted by Cheng Hai’s painful howl.

"Get away! Monster! I don't want to become a monster!" Cheng Hai broke free of his restraints and stumbled towards the door. "Yu Yang! Old Yu! Where are you—"

The door slid open at that moment.

Yu Yang stood at the door, still smelling of gunpowder from his hasty return from New Atlantis.

His gill slits opened due to the vigorous movement, and the blue blood vessels in his neck were clearly visible.

“Old Cheng! I’m here,” Yu Yang said softly.

Cheng Hai froze, his eyes wide: "Your neck..."

His gaze shifted to Yu Yang's hands, noticing the slight webbed structures. "My God! They modified you too!"

“It’s different.” Yu Yang slowly approached, like approaching a startled animal. “My changes were designed, coded into my genes from birth. Yours are the result of forced modification. But we are still ourselves, Lao Cheng. No matter how our appearances change.”

Cheng Hai's breathing gradually calmed, but he remained warily curled up in the corner, his mutated left arm pressed tightly against his chest: "I look like a monster."

“Me too.” Yu Yang squatted down to be at eye level with Cheng Hai. “Remember those sci-fi movies we watched in college? You always said that if you could grow gills, you'd never have to worry about failing your diving exam.”

Cheng Hai let out a sound that was somewhere between a sob and laughter: "I never said I wanted to turn into half a lobster."

He tentatively stretched out his left arm, the scales opening and closing slightly with the movement of his muscles. "Will this continue to spread?"

Ryan cautiously maintained his distance: "We've temporarily stabilized gene expression. Theoretically, there shouldn't be any further mutations, but..."

He glanced at Ella, who was getting up from the ground. "But your situation is unprecedented. Forced modification should have been fatal, yet you survived and demonstrated amazing adaptability."

Yu Yang helped Cheng Hai to his feet and handed him a robe to cover himself: "Can you walk? We need you, old Cheng. Karl attacked New Atlantis."

“Karl? That red-armored bastard?” Cheng Hai tried to take a step, his left leg wobbling slightly but still able to move. “What did he do?”

"Testing the weapon system, according to him," Yu Yang briefly described the attack and the captured Leviathan. "Worse still, Xiao Lin discovered that Ocean Biotechnology had already registered a patent for aquatic adaptation genes."

Cheng Hai's expression turned serious, his taut jaw visible even through the scales: "Oceanic Creatures is the Council's biggest sponsor. If they've already mastered the technology but are concealing it..."

“That’s exactly what we were worried about.” Ryan handed over a data panel. “This is research data that Karl stole before his betrayal. The ‘Purification Protocol’ wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment idea; it was the ultimate contingency plan devised by the former civilization’s military—to forcibly eliminate the ‘unfit’ when humanity can no longer evolve peacefully.”